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And so after a
brief pause the company resumed its mirth. One and the same night witnessed
Britannicus's death and funeral, preparations having been already made for
his obsequies, which were on a humble scale. He was however buried in the
Campus Martius, amid storms so violent, that in the popular belief they
portended the wrath of heaven against a crime which many were even inclined
to forgive when they remembered the immemorial feuds of brothers and the
impossibility of a divided throne. It is related by several writers of the
period that many days before the murder, Nero had offered the worst insult
to the boyhood of Britannicus; so that his death could no longer seem a
premature or dreadful event, though it happened at the sacred board, without
even a moment for the embraces of his sisters, hurried on too, as it was,
under the eyes of an enemy, on the sole surviving offspring of the Claudii,
the victim first of dishonour, then of poison. The emperor apologised for
the hasty funeral by reminding people that it was the practice of our
ancestors to withdraw from view any grievously untimely death, and not to
dwell on it with panegyrics or display. For himself, he said, that as he had
now lost a brother's help, his remaining hopes centred in the State, and all
the more tenderness ought to be shown by the Senate and people towards a
prince who was the only survivor of a family born to the highest
greatness.